Secrets
by LOV3theARTS
Summary: Lily must choose: James or his safety?


Secrets

* * *

Lily Evans gazed at her reflection and saw pride gaze back. She carefully pinned her Head Girl badge onto her robes and smoothed out her russet colored hair. Tonight was her first time patrolling the mysterious halls of Hogwarts by herself, since the other Head, James Potter, had been suspended from duties because he got caught pulling a prank on some Slytherins.

Taking the flight of stairs down from the girls dormitories and into the common room, Lily heard familiar voices coming from the high-backed chairs near the fireplace.

"I don't like it. Not one bit," said a solemn James Potter, her previous sworn enemy, but now very-much-loved boyfriend of four days. He pointed his finger accusingly at Sirius Black, his best friend. "It's all your fault! If you had shown up at the right time with the invisibility cloak, then McGonagall never would've caught me. But _no_, you had to keep flirting with _Mary McDonald_-!"

Sirius held up his hands in defense. "I thought you said _12:30, _not _10:30_-!"

"Enough, guys!" Interjected their other friend, Remus Lupin. "James, She'll be fine. Teachers encircle the halls all the time." Remus continued, reasonable as always.

"We can always just follow her in the _cloak_." Sirius Black whispered the last word. Lily saw James suddenly sit up, tempted at his solution. Lily knew of the invisibility cloak and in her prefect years had tried many times to report the boys for using it in their pranks. Lily was an enforcer of the law, not one to fool around.

Lily heard what Sirius was implying and marched up to the three boys. "Absolutely not!" The boys jumped, startled at her sudden interruption. "Don't you dare let me catch you out of the dormitory after hours or I will give you all detention!"

"But Lily-!" Began James.

"No!" Lily wanted to be taken seriously, and was insulted that the boys assumed she, Lily Evans, needed protection. She turned on her heel and left as quickly as possible so the boys wouldn't have time to follow her out.

Once finished scrambling through the portrait passageway, Lily quickly noticed how the dark halls seemed much more menacing than she had originally anticipated. Regardless, she squared her shoulders, took out her wand and began to walk, keeping an eye out for any funny business.

She was just finishing her last round when she suddenly caught sight of a small group a students, just near the astronomy tower. They seemed to emit an ominous vibe which caused a lump of fear to grow in the pit of her stomach.

She took a deep, steadying breath and took long strides towards the students huddled near a tall, medieval window.

"This is a warning." She called out in a strong, clear voice that she hoped, with all her might, covered up the sound of her shaking knees. "I don't want to see you out of bed again. Go to your respective dormitories and no points will be taken away."

The students, momentarily startled at the noise, looked over her way, and snorted. One, whom she quickly recognized as Mulciber, a fellow seventh year and slytherin with a sketchy reputation, swaggered confidently in her direction, stopped, and glanced at her up and down as if sizing her up. Lily held up her wand, a hex already in mind.

"Go to your dormitory, Mulciber." She glared, lips pursed.

He smirked. "No."

There was a bang. Lily found herself on the floor, head throbbing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mulciber cockily spin his wand in one hand like a baton, gloating over the fact that he was faster than she.

"He's a pureblood," spat Mulciber, his green and silver striped tie slightly askew. "Yes, a blood traitor, but still a pureblood."

Possessing a little inkling as to who "he" was, Lily continued to listen, suddenly fearful for her life. He held his wand firm in his grip and flexed his hand menacingly, causing her to flinch in fear.

He began to circle her cowering form. The other Slytherin's shifted slightly, excited as to what he was going to do next.

"And you are just a_ mudblood._ You are _nothing_. I will not stand for good, noble wizarding blood to be soiled so easily." Red, angry sparks shot out from the tip of his wand. Lily could only stare up at his twisted face in horror, terrified as to what they might to do to her, all over something she had no control over.

He stooped down to her level to face her properly. "Evans, Potter wants you. The whole school knows, so don't play dumb." A cloud shifted outside so the moon's rays were able to pass through the open window to reveal what once was shadows; Lestrange, Bellatrix Black, Selwyn, Travers and Rosier all leered down at her from behind Mulciber.

"And even though he does not seem to care about his lineage, his pureblood status, which will one day spare his life for his traitorous behavior, I cannot say the same for you and your _filthy_ blood. The dark lord does not care for wasted magical blood."

He got up, and pointed his wand at her forehead. "This is a warning, _Cruci_-"

"-NO!" Before Mulciber could finish his treacherous spell, James Potter appeared out of nowhere- literally. Sirius Black pulled back the invisibility cloak and pulled his wand out from his robes' pocket, face set in an angry sneer.

Then, chaos erupted. Remus careened from around the corner, with Peter Pettigrew in tow. The former shot a well-aimed hex at Lestrange, while the latter cowered behind his three friends.

"Lily, get back!" Potter shouted over his shoulder, shooting a _stupefy_ spell in Mulciber's direction.

Lily didn't fancy being told what to do by Potter. She quickly found her wand on the stone-cold floor which had been tossed out of her hand when Mulciber hexed her. Wordlessly, a purple luminance began to emit from her wand, and the two parties were pulled apart by an unknown force. Their wands were forced from their hands and shot over to where Lily was standing, she caught them in her free hand.

"Go back to your dormitories." She said with a firmness she did not feel, glaring at them all. "Your wands will be returned to you tomorrow morning."

The Slytherins gave her one last sneer, unable to retaliate without their wands, and slithered back into the shadows.

The purple glow faded, and at the same time so did Lily's determined countenance.

Remus broke the sudden silence first. "H-How did you do that, Lily? That's pretty advanced magic..."

She gave him a small smile. "Professor Flitwick mentioned it in charms a few weeks ago, I did a little research... tonight was the first time I ever tried it... _Imperantemus._" She shook her head, thoughtfully. "I told you guys to not follow me, that I can handle myself..."

"He was just about to torture you! I- I couldn't _not_-!" James interrupted, frustration etched on his face.

"I know." She whispered, looking down at the wands in her hands. A few of them warm, comforting at the touch, and the others were cold and gave off a disquieting vibe.

"Here," she handed them their wands back. The owners gave her looks of gratefulness in return. She tucked her own in her pocket and began to walk back to her dormitory.

Halfway up the stairs, she heard James call out her name. She paused and allowed him to catch up with her.

"Yes?" She answered, carefully smoothing out her robes.

"Er, don't listen to them." He said slowly, painfully. He avoided eye contact.

"What?"

"They don't know what they're talking about." He replied, shuffling his feet.

Her cheeks began to heat up. "You mean... You-you heard what they...?"

He nodded slowly, his glasses slightly skewed from the tussle with the Slytherins.

An awkward silence hung in the air. Lily sighed heavily and said, "it's a good thing they didn't know, huh?"

He took her hand and said, "Lily, you know I don't care about any of that 'blood' stuff, right? You know that neither does Sirius, Remus or Peter... or any other Gryffindors for that matter, care about it. It's just James and Lily, not pureblood and muggleborn."

Lily glanced around, uneasy as to who could be watching and pulled her hand away from his grip. "I- I just don't want you to get hurt for being with someone like, like _me_."

He furrowed his eyebrows, angrily. "You mean someone so amazingly perfect like you? Yeah, you're right, we don't want to make anyone jealous."

She gave a forced smile. "You know it's true, James. You-Know-Who and his gang would spare your life because of your bloodline. But, I-... in their eyes, I'm no better than a house elf."

"Lily, what-?"

"I'm just saying, for our own sakes, maybe we should end this before we-"

"No, no no no. Absolutely not. I will not break up for such a stupid reason-"

"It's _not_ stupid, James-!"

"No, it's pretty stupid-"

"Please don't make it harder than it already has to be!" She cried out. Tears began to leak out from her eyes.

He put a hand on her upper arm and tried to pull her closer, but she resisted. Desperate, he said, "Let's not, let's not think about breaking up or anything... We'll just, I don't know, keep it a secret for a while. Just between you, me, and the other marauders. We can trust them!"

She smile through her tears. "Always. We can trust them." She sighed, giving up. "Fine, a secret."

He kissed her forehead and they made their way up the staircase, hand in hand, and into the darkness.

* * *

Author's Note: A reviewer made a comment that James Potter was supposed to be Head Boy. I thought that was an assumption made up by fans, and not from JK Rowling. I did some quick research and found that, yes, James Potter was Head Boy... Oops. So I went and made the necessary changes, sorry for an inconvenience.


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